Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta is an unique holy book of Hindus. It was a preaching of 45 minutes to Arjun by his Charioteer Lord Krishna on the first day of the battle of Mahabharata, some 6000 years ago.

It was narrated to activate (Right Action) Arjun for the Dharma Yuddha (Right Path), but it become a guiding text for all for living better and blissful life.

It's main discussion is on spirituality. Therefore, if we understand the words, kshetra and kshetragya, the true meanings of the verses of this holy book can be understood in its true meaning.

Geeta hasn't advocated the 4 divisions of humans based on their birth varna/castes. Some people have misinterpreted it and without going into the philosophy of the book, condemn it in toto.

It's a spiritual book and talks about spiritual upliftment of each individual. It talks about, God, Jeeva, and Nature. It explains the path of gyan, karma and bhakti to attain moksha/nirvan. How smartly it has separated Jad-Chetan, Vidhya-Avidhya, Dharma-Adharma, Bandhan-Mukti, etc!

All are born Shudra from birth. But as soon as one grow, his/her nature grow depending upon his/her DNA, teachings, environment, interactions, etc.

Nature of an individual has three characteristics: Tamas, Rajas and Satva. Tamas represents idleness, inactivity, depression; Rajas represents activities; Satva represents simplicity and knowledge. Each individual is a mix of all three but one of the characters will become dominant in his actions. And that decided the varna and path of his life. The varnas are for: Brahmana (Satva), Kshatriya (Rajas), Vaishya (Tamas) and Shudra (avidhya, birth position of all). Each individual, who has started as Shudra has to travel upward in spiritual life to higher up varna by attaining its character, and finally to reach the destination of gunatit (free from all 3 gunas/characters) to attain Moksha/Kaivalya/Nirvana.

People act as per the status of his mind, that is governed by the gun dominance of Satva, Rajas and Tamas. The kshetra is our mind and we are the kshetragya. All start at the stage, called "avidhya" (ignorance). With the help of wisdom, karmendriya, gyanendriya, we go on doing karma with "I" (karta) and are attached to its outcome and remain in one of the three varnas. Akarta, gunatit is the stage, one has to travel to attain Moksha.

Arjuna and Lord Krishna are symbolic. Each individual is Arjuna (Jeeva), can reach to the level of Krishna (Shiva/Parmatma)

It is an internal journey, has nothing to do with division of humans based on their birth castes.